In the Kitchen today…

In the Kitchen today…

This was fabulous. Nothing profound here, at all. Just humble root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and butternut squash) glorified by heat and fat and salt. I had a friend over when these came out of the oven, and she was just snatching them right off the hot pan mid-sentence. And the parsnips were a surprise win: if you’ve never roasted parsnips before, you will be delighted by their sweet-potato-like flavor.

Everything got peeled. Everything got diced. It all got spread out on 2 (parchment papered) sheet pans (yes, it was crowded). Generous salt was added. And here’s where I veered from Ina: I sprinkled the veg lightly with garlic powder, onion powder, and dried rosemary. Depth of flavor right there. Then, when I go to make the Roasted Vegetable Soup (p.33), the leftover vegetables will be perfectly seasoned and ready to roll.

Ina says to bake the veggies at 425° for 25-35 minutes. This was not nearly long enough to get that caramelized crisp on the outside, as was advertised in the picture in her cookbook. I let it go for a full 1 hour and it was perfect in my estimation, though 45-50 minutes may just do the trick for some.